I began officially volunteering at PetSmart through Lollypop Farms this week, and from now on will spend each Wednesday and Thursday morning there helping out.

So far the week has been pretty exciting - and I've only been there two days!

Everyone gets in around 7:00 to set up before the store officially opens at 9:00. Lollypop has lots of animals there for adoption including: mice, rats, guinea pigs, hamsters, bunnies, ferrets, degus, birds, and cats. (basically any mammal other than dogs can show up for adoption)

Apparently there was a chinchilla that came in yesterday afternoon but was already gone by the time I came back this morning.On Wednesday's the small animal cages need a full clean; so we take out all their food, water, shelter, and toys/wheels and sterilize them. (that's an image of a pet rat) Once every thing is clean we put it all back in, with fresh water and food. The food is dry food with a few treats (cut up veggies and fruit) mixed in - and they love it!

The animals hate getting all their stuff taken out, particularly the mice. They will burrow in the wood shavings to try and hide when they don't have a shelter. It's cute, but they are obviously terrified. I've tried to jostle them as little as possible - but its basically impossible not to disrupt everything.

After the small animals are set-up we move on to the birds. (the one in that image is a lovebird) Wednesdays they need a full clean too - which requires taking out all the perches, toys, food, and water dishes for cleaning. We sterilize them the same way, and when they are done the birds get fresh food, water, and peat sticks. Most of the birds handle the cleaning well, but a few parakeets panic and try to fly away. The aviary has a door you can close so they don't fly out when you open the cages, but I've heard that it's easy to let one sneak by.Finally on Wednesday we clean the cat cages. I've been really careful to not get too close to the cats (as much as I want to love them all) because they have been exposed to lots of other cats and upper respiratory diseases - which I don't want Charlie to catch! One of the kittens has pink eye, and I've been extra careful to not get near him.

It's required that we use hand sanitizer between cats, but I do it more than is required, and always wear gloves. I might start bringing a change of clothes too. They get a little scoop of wet food, fresh litter, water, and dry food every day.

Wednesday is also transport day when all the new cats and animals come in from the main shelter. I didn't get to stay around for that this week but when I came back on Thursday I saw that there were two adorable new kittens that came in. I hope they get adopted soon! Next week I might stay later to help with that, I hear its a crazy time.

Thursday seems to be the same basic start, only instead of a full clean we just give all the animals fresh water, food, and veggies. First small animals, then birds, then cats - but I didn't make it to the cats today....As I mentioned up top we have two Degus. (that's one in the image above) They are kind of a cross between a chinchilla and a hamster and are really cute little critters. The two we have were already adopted and waiting to be picked up. So this morning we went to feed them, and when we took their old food dishes out everything was normal. Then when we came back about 1/2 an hour later with cleaned dishes and fresh food there was a degu missing!

He had chewed through the air vent and crawled up somewhere!

We thought he might be on the top of the ferrets cage, because there was a shadow in the corner, but he wasn't. Then we thought he might be on the very top of the cage, but he wasn't. Then we thought he might have crawled down and be among the food bags, but we couldn't find him there either.

At that point I had to leave for work, but all the staff and volunteers were frantically looking for this guy. I hope they found him safely...

So that's what I'll be doing from 7-9 two days a week - cleaning, feeding, and loving all the animals that come in. So far I really like it - even with all the cleaning - and I am looking forward to next week.